What It's Like to Work as a People Partner at SmartRecruiters

At SmartRecruiters, our People Partners are integral to building a thriving and dynamic workplace. In this interview, we chat with Yann Kremer, one of our People Partners about his role, the variety of tasks he handles, and the teams he collaborates with daily. Discover why he likes his job and his unique experiences.

Tell us about your current role in SmartRecruiters, your set of tasks and team you work with?

Being a People Partner at SmartRecruiters brings you on a wide range of missions. Thus, I am responsible for the administration of the employees’ lifecycle of my area of expertise, while working with their managers of 3 departments on a daily basis. With managers, I act as an advisor in the event of HR or legal subjects. It can be about solving internal problems or performance issues.

What do you like the most about your role?

I love my role for 2 main reasons:

1) As a Partner, I talk on a weekly basis to my client group and I remain close to the workshop. As an example, I always try to ask the managers to explain to me the projects on which they are working, even if I don’t understand everything behind it. The discussions are particularly interesting and makes HR feel like a strategic stakeholder in their environment.

2) Everyday, I jump from one country to another. Since I started working, I never had a position that was so interesting, stimulating me at such a level. Working on HR problematics around the world is something that stimulates me, as I keep learning.

SmartRecruiters as company

Share your thoughts on what you like in SmartRecruiters.

After several years in a totally different universe than Software Development, I did not expect a company to actually be as warm and friendly as SR.

1) At Smart, you can basically contact everyone in the hierarchy line. This was a game changer when I started as a People Operations Specialist in 2022, as I had a scope with a huge variety of departments across 3 countries. Any issue with a signature ? Drop a slack to the manager in question, launch a quick call, and go! Here, the communication is fluid, and I couldn’t come back to something more classical!

2) SmartRecruiters is unique in terms of diversity. This is a strength that is not to be undervalued. Thus, teams always contain at least 2 or 3 different nationalities, while it’s not uncommon to have groups of 4 people working together but from totally different continents. After working for a very local company, I was astonished by that. Alone in Germany we have over 24 Nationalities represented! At one point, we even had a representative of each European Country! This brings value to the company, with diverse perspectives.

Innovation and Project Impact

Can you share a project you’ve worked on that you feel had a significant impact on our products or services?

I joined SmartRecruiters in 2022, at a time when the individual performance of new joiners was not centrally assessed, and when assessed, it was done differently in each team. In the last months of 2024, I implemented a global process on our HRIS to follow and monitor new employees’ performance during their probation period, with the help of other members of the team.

This process is important to me, and for the company as it will be a good way to put us on the road of performance culture.

Our Values

Looking ahead, which of our new values do you hope to embrace even more in your journey here?

On my side, I would like to embrace the value of “Solving the biggest problems.” As a People Partner, the managers I work with daily have to juggle multiple pressing objectives. Supporting them to address and prioritize the most critical People challenges they face, not only helps them deliver on their commitments but also drives significant impact for our organization and customers.

Which of our new values do you think plays the biggest role in your day-to-day work? How?

From the new values, I would say that the one that plays the biggest role in my day to day work is “Together we will win”. We must remain confident in each other and in our mission to change the recruiting world forever.

Advice for Future Team Members

What advice would you give to someone considering a move to your team?

Do not be afraid of joining a company that is not from the same industry as the one you are working currently. Not having worked in the software industry is not a blocker, it’s even VERY useful for the team! You’ll bring with you the knowledge you acquired before and this will be useful to face the challenges we have here at SmartRecruiters. Having worked in a more stable and standardized environment is very useful in Scaleup, as it brings stability to your colleagues and builds confidence.

From your experience, what qualities does someone need to succeed in a role like yours at SmartRecruiters?

At SR, you need to be adaptive and flexible as it’s an ever changing environment. With the people, don’t forget you’ll need empathy and being helpful for others, especially for managers. However, you’ll also need to be able to say no.

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What It's Like to Work as a People Partner at SmartRecruiters

SmartRecruiters as company

Innovation and Project Impact

Our Values

Advice for Future Team Members

Tags

Winning Together

SmartRecruiters is hiring!

What It's Like to Work as a People Partner at SmartRecruiters

SmartRecruiters as company

Innovation and Project Impact

Our Values

Advice for Future Team Members

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